Who is Emma Bovary? If you ask anyone who’s already read Gustave Flaubert’s brilliant novel Madame Bovary, they’d probably tell you that they themselves are Emma. Because truth of the matter is (unfortunately), there is a piece of Madame Bovary inside all of us.

We’re all looking for some kind of climatic moment in our lives, and sometimes we end up being disappointed.  Maybe you want to reunite with an old flame at an airport and have him or her welcome you with open arms (like they do in the movies and unrealistic books). Or maybe you buy a lottery ticket each day and anticipate the day those numbers on the television screen match that orange slip of paper you spend five dollars on daily.

My point is, life can be boring, and it usually hits us readers harder because we immerse ourselves in unrealistic scenarios that our favorite characters go through, and have difficulty dealing with reality and the mundane things that accompany it.

There is no crusade or quest in Madame Bovary. In fact, it is about the boring Bovary family that live in a boring village called Yonville or should I say Yawn-ville. Yet, Flaubert manages to make the four-hundred page novel so interesting.

Why, you may ask?

Because it is realistic.

Emma Bovary marries a man named Charles, and the happiness that should have resulted in her marriage never comes to her. Emma is a hopeless romantic and keeps clinging onto this absurd notion that there needs to be a “Prince Charming” in her life to make her happy. And Charles, an inept doctor, is definitely not the way to go. So, she starts buying herself things, replacing the void in her heart with materialism, and later affairs, which only temporarily satisfies her.

Many who aren’t happy with their spouse have a hard time being satisfied with the things they have and consistently think about the things they should have. And Flaubert shows the readers that it’s important to be self-sufficient through Emma’s annoying, yet understanding rants of dissatisfaction.

Madame Bovary is an interesting must-read with a reward of twenty-seven accelerated reading points.